Complementary Operations of Multi-renewable Energy Systems with Pumped Storage

Complementarity is an important attribute among different renewable energy sources (RESs). A multi-renewable energy system (MRES) offers an alternative to aggregate diverse RESs and can ensure the best attributes of their mutual characteristics. However, few papers conduct convincing research into the complementary operation of a MRES. This paper investigates the complementarities in a MRES that contains wind, photovoltaic, run-off hydro, pumped storage power plants and incorporates complementarity into the optimal operation of a MRES. The complementarity is theoretically summarized and first classified into two categories: natural and synthetical. To effectively capture the uncertainty and complementarity of RESs, the time-dependent clustering simulation technique is employed to generate their joint-scenarios. An equivalent runoff hydropower plant index is proposed, based on which a novel complementary operation model, that considers volatility and self-sufficient adequacy, is established. Results are presented and compared in a case study, which demonstrate the validity and scalability of the proposed methodology, reveals the complementarities under multiple time-scales, and illustrates the significance of complementary operations.